MSC PARTNERS MEETING

MISSOULA PUBLIC LIBRARY

FEBRUARY 10, 2006

12:00 NOON

MEMBERS PRESENT: John Finn and Colleen Ferguson, Hearst Free Library

Gloria Langstaff and Nansu Rodney, Bitterroot Public Library

Jodi Oberweiser, DrummondSchool and Community Library

Patty Jonesand Katie Boyes, Flathead County Library

Marilyn Troosper, PolsonCity Library

Honore Bray and Claire Morton, Missoula Public Library

Others Present: Sarah McHugh, Jennie Stapp and Bruce Newell, MSC/MSL

Maggie Meredith and Bob Cooper, State Wide Technology

Specialists/MSL

UPDATE ON CURRENT INTERESTED LIBRARIES:

BridgerNet Libraries (Bozeman, Belgrade, Threeforks, and West Yellowstone) are interested in coming into the Partners Group in the fall of 2006. Anna McLean from Belgrade is the contact person for the group.

Academic Libraries showing interest are FlatheadValleyCommunity Collegeand MilesCommunity College. FVCC would need an agreement that they could have a circ rule that all the items their students had checked out needed to be returned by the end of the semester. There was no opposition to this becoming a circ rule for them. Jodi said it would probably benefit all schools if this rule was in order.

MilesCityCommunity College is concerned about the 28 day circ rule and feels they need to wait a bit.

School Libraries showing interest are Park High School (Livingston), SweetGrassHigh School and SweetGrassElementary School (Big Timber). Carnegie Public (Big Timber) and the High School have already taken down the walls between patrons so they are getting closer to the Partner Circ Rules.

North Valley Public Library in Stevensville is getting ready to start adding their collection and when they are finished they are very interested in the Partners.

FLOATING COLLECTIONS

The process of floating is starting out slowly. Gloria said the Bitterroot Patrons are excited about getting to look through and touch books coming from other libraries.

Sarah will have Mike run a report on February 16, to show where each libraries floating items are. Within the next few months, after evaluation of how things are going with the floating items, libraries will start floating more of their items.

THINGS TO PONDER

Would new Partners be required to start “floating” immediately?

Discussion took place and the consensus was that the new libraries would be given six months to adjust to the Partners and then they would be required to float their collections like everyone else. They will be allowed to take baby steps in adding the collections by starting with adult fiction etc. Claire will add this to the best practices.

A list of items for potential Partners to think about was discussed. Some of these

will be added to best practices so those interested understand what the impact will be on their library.

*Staff time and costs

*Additional postage and transportation costs

*Conforming to Partner rules/procedures of the Partners

*A plan in place for getting items to and from their libraries

RESERVE ITEMS

Academic libraries will need to put items in the collection on reserve for students to use during a course of study. This is not viewed as a problem. It would be a great way for school libraries to have items ready that would be used in class work. (Jodi could place holds on items from each library and then put them on reserve for students to use in her library.)

MISSION STATEMENT

Discussion took place about the MSC creating a mission statement and move toward a more formal agreement with suggested guidelines for new members. Further discussion will take place at a later date.

OCLC/TRANSPORTATION

Bruce Newell presented the items that the Networking Task Force deem important to Montana Libraries. Librarians should look at the plan on the state website and comment on the items they feel are most important. This will help Darlene know what is important to those librarians in the field.

OCLC would like to help Montana Libraries, who are on varied catalogs, share their materials in a seamless manner. This would happen by using Z39.50 and NCIP. It would allow non-partner libraries to take place in partner sharing. Knowing how sparsely populated Montana is, the folks at OCLC are interested in getting materials not just from library to library but from library to user’s homes. They are looking at a partnership with UPS on how this can get done faster, better and cheaper. After a great amount of discussion it was decided that the perfect starting place would be between UM and MSLA-MAIN. Once the bugs are worked out we would open it up for Partners and the Highline shared catalog.

COURIER SERVICE IN MONTANA

Bob has had many contacts as of late concerning small courier systems in Montana. People are finding out about the Partners Program and wanting to become part of the solution. We need to build something that is stable, cost effective and happens frequently. A committee will work on finding out what is out there. Bob Cooper, Nansu Rodney, Jodi Oberweiser, John Finn and Honore Bray will follow through on this charge.

Meeting Adjourned at 3:45